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About the AAUP

The AAUP is a nonprofit membership association of faculty and other academic professionals. Headquartered in Washington, DC, we have members and chapters based at colleges and universities across the country.

Since our foundation in 1915, the AAUP has helped to shape American higher education by developing the standards and procedures that maintain quality in education and academic freedom in this country's colleges and universities. We define fundamental professional values and standards for higher education, advance the rights of academics, particularly as those rights pertain to academic freedom and shared governance, and promote the interests of higher education teaching and research.

The AAUP has two sister organizations:

The AAUP-CBC is a labor union; its members are those chapters of the AAUP that engage in collective bargaining. The AAUP-CBC promotes organizing among tenure-line and contingent faculty, academic professionals, and graduate employees and provides support to member chapters as they work to protect shared governance and academic freedom, to uphold professional standards and values,

The AAUP Foundation is a public charity; it funds, through its grant making process, the charitable and educational purposes of the AAUP, including support for academic freedom and quality higher education.

The mission of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is to advance academic freedom and shared governance; to define fundamental professional values and standards for higher education; to promote the economic security of faculty, academic professionals, graduate students, post‐doctoral fellows, and all those engaged in teaching and research in higher education; to help the higher education community organize to make our goals a reality; and to ensure higher education's contribution to the common good.

The AAUP was formed in 1915 by Arthur Lovejoy and John Dewey, in response to an incident at Stanford University several years earlier. Almost a century later, the AAUP is still addressing the kinds of abuse that spurred Lovejoy and Dewey to organize the Association. Academia has changed a lot since 1915, but there are still people who want to control what professors teach and write. Thanks to the AAUP, academic freedom is recognized as the fundamental principle of our profession. Despite this acceptance, academic freedom remains vulnerable. The attacks are more subtle in some cases, but the response must always be decisive.

Employment Opportunities

AAUP staff position openings and positions with AAUP chapter and affiliates are posted on our employment page. We also maintain a career center for academic positions not affiliated with the AAUP.

Join the AAUP

As an AAUP member, you join forces with colleagues who care about academic freedom and shared governance. You help protect quality higher education and shape the future of our profession. In addition, there are practical benefits such as discounts, insurance programs, and a subscription to Academe
magazine.

Start a Chapter

Active AAUP chapters serve the profession on more than 500 campuses by supporting principles and programs that vitally affect the quality of higher education and professional life. Find out how you can start a chapter at your college or university.